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A North Texas woman says she thought she and her 15-month-old daughter would die when a man jumped into their car and began driving the wrong way. (Published Tuesday, June 19, 2012)

Updated at 10:59 PM CDT on Wednesday, Jun 20, 2012

Dallas police are searching for a man who carjacked a woman and her baby Sunday afternoon after stealing from a nearby Walmart.

Police said the man stole a T-shirt from the Walmart near Interstate 30 and Cockrell Hill Road and then jumped into the woman's car in a Starbucks parking lot while police were chasing him.

Mother, Child Survive Frightening Carjacking

The man jumped into a car in a Starbucks parking lot that had a woman and her baby inside. Officers were chasing the man after he allegedly stole a T-shirt from a nearby Walmart. (Published Tuesday, June 19, 2012)

The man didn't realize the woman and her 15-month-old daughter were sitting inside the vehicle, police said.

"I thought we were dead," Kari Kimbler said. "I thought he was going to take us somewhere and dump us off or kill us. I had no idea what was going to happen.

Kimbler said her husband had gone inside the Starbucks when the man jumped in the driver's seat and took off. She said he started driving erratically, going the wrong way down Cockrell Hill Road.

"I started hitting him and beating him and screaming, ‘My baby, my baby -- I have my baby. Please let us out. Please dump us out. I don't care where it is. Please let us out,'" Kimbler said.

She said the man initially refused.

"Then momma bear kicked, and I all could think was, 'I've got to protect my baby with all that I have,' and it came out, and I just beat the living daylights out of him as hard as I could -- in his head, just punching in his head, and she was screaming too," Kimbler said.

Kimbler said the man stopped underneath a bridge after five minutes.

"He did pull over," he said. "But as I was getting her out, he pushed us out to get us out and just kept going."

Kimbler said she can breathe easier now that she and her baby are home and safe. But she said the fear of what could have happened is still with her.

"I've told all of my loved ones how much I love them," she said. "And I hug my daughter tighter, and I told her tighter, and I tell her how much mommy and daddy love her."

"I'm just so thankful she and I got out alive," Kimbler said.

Dallas police described man as an approximately 5-foot-9-inch tall Latino man in his early 30s who weighs about 185 pounds with a bald head and sleeves of tattoos on both arms. He was last seen wearing a gray Texas Longhorn hat, khaki shorts and a dark-colored shirt.

Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Scoggins in the Southwest Investigative Unit at 214-670-7471.